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Friday, May 24, 2013

Frances Ha (opens May 24th in Cleveland exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

FRANCES HA
opens in Cleveland on Friday May 24th exclusively at the Cedar Lee
Theatre.]

Bob
Ignizio

A
meandering and nearly plotless comedy/character study, FRANCES
HA focuses on 27 year-old
apprentice dancer Frances (Greta Gerwig) as she struggles to find
love, keep a roof over her head, and maybe grow up a little while
living in New York City. As such it either sinks or swims on the
strength of its main character. If you don't like and relate to
Frances or at least find her interesting, there isn't much here to
keep you watching.

Personally
I was teetering on the edge. The film's saving grace is Gerwig, who
co-wrote the screenplay with director Noah Baumbach. Her performance
manages to imbue Frances with enough humanity and likability to make
up for the fact that, as written, the character is little more than a
directionless self-absorbed bundle of quirks and cluelessness.

In
homage to Woody Allen's MANHATTAN,Baumbach opted to have the film
shot in flat digital black and white. As much as I love seeing a
modern film shot in black and white, the dingy monochrome on display
here does little besides make the film look cheap and add another
layer of contrivance to the affair.

If
there's one thing other than sequels and remakes that the movies have
enough of, it's indie films about self-absorbed artist types living
in New York or L.A. and stressing out over first world problems.
Speaking of first world problems, whining about there being too many
movies about self absorbed artist types probably qualifies, so I'll
try to end on a more positive note. As far as these kind of things
go, FRANCES HA isn't
too bad. It doesn't quite manage to make this familiar material feel
fresh, but at least there are some laughs and a few moments of
genuine emotional resonance. And at least it's not TINY
FURNITURE. 2 1/2 out of 4
stars.